Stable isotope analysis can help reveal food fraud. How can a consumer verify grass-fed beef wasn’t actually fattened with corn? That eggs are really organic and that honey hasn’t been sweetened with sugar? Lesley Chesson says, “If you’re going to pay a premium, there is an incentive to cheat and mislabel.”

Food Sleuths, via Fast Company –

You Are Where You Eat, via The Scientist Magazine –

Stable isotopes can help solve crime, by recreating the travel and diet history of a victim. Analysis can answer a variety of questions about what someone ate or drank, or if they changed location, say Jim Ehleringer and Lesley Chesson.““Was she local? Did she move into the area? If she did, where was she from prior to her death?"”

Stable isotope analysis can be used to investigate ancient diet and provide clues as to what our human ancestors really ate: “Most modern primates have diets of leaves from trees and shrubs. What sets humans apart is their transition to the new restaurant in town,” which serves grains, grasses and sedges, said Thure Cerling. Read more here:

When asked about soda consumption, it’s not uncommon for people to underestimate, lie, or forget what they’ve had to drink. Could stable isotope analysis be an unbiased measurement technique to help answer that question? Find out more here: